Yellow Alert

Quite a few resplendent mansions could be found in Daedalus Street, and all of them stuck out like sore thumbs. Well, compared to the lavish mansions that were sprinkled all over the rest of the city, they looked somewhat shabby, but when contrasted by the worst slum that Orario had to offer, they reminded passersby of heavenly realms instead of simple upper-class residences.

"I see. Fantastic work, Asim."

In one of these aforementioned manors, a breathtaking woman sat upon a golden throne, casually eating expensive imported fruits. She looked not a day older than 20 years, had olive skin and soft facial features. Her dark-brown eyes were framed by a bit of black makeup, causing them to become a focal point for any observer. Her black hair was styled in a bun plait and the high quality, white kalasiris that she wore was mostly see-through. Obviously, there was underwear covering all the places that mattered - she wasn't an exhibitionist, after all.

She had just finished listening to her familia's child's report and she couldn't repress her excitement. A confident smile spread on her face.

"Rise. I want to see them eradicated as soon as possible, so assemble all the manpower that you need, we're not lacking capable soldiers. Make haste, we can't afford to give that bastard's men the opportunity to get to them first!"

Asim, the man clad in black robes, quickly rose to his feet and bowed deeply as a show of respect. Even though only the area around his eyes was visible because of his veil, the unwavering belief and reverence in his gaze couldn't be concealed.

"As you wish, Lady Petbe."

Once she was left alone, Petbe unrestrainedly slouched down on her throne and giggled to herself, lost in her fantasies just like a young girl in love. This assignment might not be a difficult one, but it was still very important, as it had come from her beloved himself. Just thinking about his gallant and heroic figure as he had trampled various pantheons beneath his feet in a show of dominance made her go weak in the knees - thankfully, she had already been seated.

Crazed love sparkled in her eyes and her breathing accelerated while she mumbled to herself.

"I'll be his favourite, no matter what!"

-----

Compared to the last time that he had come to the Infernal City, the thematic zone stretching all the way from the 38th to the 42nd floor, Isaac had a much easier time. Back then, he had still started to sweat and got uncomfortable whenever he got within a couple of tens of meters of the various sources of lava, like the lakes, rivers and lavafalls that made up at least 50 percent of these floors.

Now, thanks to his vastly improved Endurance and his rank up, his greater resistance to high temperatures enabled him to get within about a meter of what had often been referred to as the Earth's blood back in his old world, without even feeling uncomfortable. His clothing and equipment would get a bit hot, and any closer would be dangerous for them. Even if he were naked, it didn't mean that he could take a swim in there, of course not. But at least the lava wouldn't pose too much of an issue as long as he avoided direct contact with this hot spring with attitude.

He had already seen all of the different monster species that could spawn on these floors back during the expedition, so he knew that there were seven of them - and he was also well aware of a few things that he had to watch out for. All of the new species could be found starting from the 38th floor, so he planned to research them here and then blaze through the rest of the zone as quickly as possible.

The species were already Level 4, which made their stats far, far higher than the ones of the monsters that he had faced before, giving Isaac so much excelia that it bordered on being ridiculous.

The weakest and most numerous of the new monsters were the Rock Roaches. Their carapaces looked extremely similar to the various rocks that could be found in this zone, so they were easily overlooked or mistaken for something harmless. They only attacked once someone got close enough to them and lowered their guard. Usually, they gathered in huge groups, and if one of them got discovered, the rest of the swarm engaged as well. The upper limit of the groups they gathered in seemed to be in the hundreds, although it was hard to be sure, as the rest could just be playing dead… or rather, playing rock.

One could spot them by paying attention to their slight movements, their odd positioning in the landscape or even by noticing that lots of the rocks in the surroundings look oddly similar to each other. Besides their excellent Endurance of I-0 / 9450, which was even further supported by their stone shells, they weren't too strong.

Coal Treants could be found quite frequently and were just Treants in the form of burnt trees. They had been exposed to the high temperatures and periodic flames for so long that their bodies had mostly turned into charcoal. They were able to produce fire on their branches and their favourite method of killing was to embrace adventurers with those plant-limbs of theirs before roasting them. Not in the verbal way, of course. Up to a certain extent, they could also use fire Magic, to attack from afar.

Still, just like in the Green Wasteland before, they were quite pitiful creatures. They still couldn't move and often got accidentally trampled to death by other monsters. Even adventurers, once they had learned about their existence, simply attacked everything that even remotely resembled a tree, more often than not killing the tragic, unfairly abused monsters before they had a chance to resist or show their strengths. Due to their mostly carbonaceous bodies, they were quite brittle, and only their Magic stat wasn't an embarrassment - it was at I-50 / 9850.

The most annoying species of all were the Salamanders, yet another version of the Lizardmen. They had grey-black scales and mostly lived in the lava, attacking and ambushing their prey from within the deadly liquid in groups of at least 30 and at most 60. Besides their relatively fast speed and swimming skills, however, they weren't anything special. Once the element of surprise was gone and one faced them head-on, they were just... frail. Their Agility was at H-100 / 10,250.

As for the species that could form the biggest groups, those were the Golminas. They were humanoid creatures that were about four meters tall and had black skin contrasted by a yellow beard. There was a horn on their heads and they only had a single eye each, reminding Isaac slightly of the mythical Cyclops from his old world. They relied on a combination of fire breaths and their extreme physical strength to take down any opponents they encountered. Respectively, their two highest stats were Strength and Magic, and both were at H-150 / 10,650. Usually, they would roam the floors in groups of around ten individuals, but sometimes, hundreds of them would form a tribe, with no upper limit.

A bit more annoying to face for the laymen were the Ash Golems. Most of their bodies were made up of ash and stone fragments, which could reach quite high temperatures depending on their surroundings. They could only be found on land and not in the lava, as they melted when they got too close to it. Their humanoid, three meter tall figures had only one weakness. In their chests, there were crystals that looked like red versions of mana crystals. They were their 'hearts' or rather 'cores' and shattering them was the only way to permanently kill them, else they would simply gather together a new body.

Thankfully, there were still other mana crystals in their heads, so hunting them wasn't unprofitable. To attack, they could let parts of their bodies form clouds of ash, slowly suffocating their opponents, or they could use basic wind Magic to create mini-tornadoes of ash and stone fragments, battering their enemies unceasingly. Once anyone got close to them, however, they were easy to kill. Their Magic stat could reach up to G-200 / 11,050 and groups of thirty plus of them could be found all over this thematic zone. Mostly, they acted as annoyances whenever other monsters were battled, but they still shouldn't be foolishly underestimated.

As for the rarest monsters, those were the Lindwurms. They were up to forty meters long and had deep-red scales, coupled with dragon-like heads and claws. Still, their bodies looked more like those of snakes. It didn't really need to be mentioned, but they could also breath fire… wow, what a surprise. The enthusiasm is through the roof today.

When there were no opponents to face, they slept beneath the lava and when fought there, they were quite deadly… mostly due to the fact that most adventurers couldn't enter the lava without dying, so they couldn't even reach them. Even when battled on land, they were still tough, as all of their stats were at G-250 / 11,450. They usually lived alone or - at most - in pairs.

Luckily, they had no regeneration-type ability, else it would be really hard to kill such large monsters as most weapons would only leave relatively shallow wounds. Even beheading them in a single strike was impossible, under normal circumstances. Unless special Skills or Magic were used, or a weapon that was long enough to cut through a six meter-thick neck was available.

Lastly, there were the Lava Turtles. Unsurprisingly, they were basically the same as the Crystal Turtles from the Water City. Quite often, they were also mistaken for islands within the lava lakes. They were about thirty meters long, and nearly as wide, and covered in a stone-like, black and charred shell. Their skin was light-grey and anything but fragile - it had to be capable of resisting being constantly submerged in lava, after all. Besides crushing someone with their weight, the only danger they posed was that they could submerge themselves or move too much while someone was on top of them, letting them take an unwelcome bath that would keep them warm for the rest of their lives. The turtles themselves weren't too dangerous, but they were quite resistant to damage, as their Endurance could reach up to G-275 / 11,650.

Isaac simply employed the same strategies as when he had faced the Crystal Turtles, cutting a bloody path into their bodies from one of the very few areas that weren't covered by their shells. Just in case, he had to make doubly sure that he had lured them very far from the nearest source of lava before engaging them - he didn't want to get drowned in lava should a turtle decide to run back there and submerge itself while he was making turtle sashimi.

By the time that Isaac reached the 41st floor, another two hours had passed and his excelia gain had once again started to stagnate - the monsters that he slew barely even gave him a single additional stat point each. Still, should he decide to update his Status, then the average of his Level 3 stats would already reach more than 1200! It would have taken him tens of minutes longer if he hadn't had his Hunter-series Development Abilities. Although a total excelia gain increase of eight percent didn't sound like much, it was far from nothing.

"At this rate, he'll catch up with our floor record in about a week…"

Tiona wasn't sure whether she should be happy about it or not. It had taken all of them far too many years to get to the 58th floor… and now she was watching Isaac close in on them so rapidly that it made her head spin.

"Maybe not. Look at his weapon."

With a slight smile on her lips, Ais pointed at Isaac's sword. Tiona quickly noticed that it had already started to get dull in a few places, and there were even slight cracks as well. Clearly, it had been forced to go beyond its limits time and time again.

"... okay, maybe it's gonna take a little bit longer."

Happily smirking to herself, she shook her head. Tiona knew well enough how difficult it was to find a fitting weapon once one planned to fight some of the higher Level monsters. The materials needed to create them were incredibly expensive, but that wasn't a problem, as they could just collect those themselves. What was harder was to find a blacksmith who could actually handle them, as most of the more inexperienced or poorer ones would never even get a chance to work with the most expensive stuff on the market.

"I'm thinking of introducing him to Lord Goibniu."

Hearing her friend's words, Tiona nodded approvingly.

"Good idea, I'll come along as well. I need to get my Urga checked, just in case I haven't been maintaining it properly."

Suddenly, the Amazoness almost doubled over - she had just recalled a key detail.

"Wait, does he even have enough valis to afford one of Lord Goibniu's works!?"

Her worried expression made a smug smile appear on Ais' face.

"Definitely. I just wonder if the Guild has enough valis to pay him for all the mana crystals and Drop Items that he's been hoarding."

Of course, she was exaggerating. The Guild had more than enough funds to afford whatever he picked up in the dungeon. The main reason that Isaac didn't make use of this, however, was that he was worried about accelerating inflation. To be fair, he had no idea how exactly the gods regulated the currencies in this world, but as he knew how stupidly the humanity from his old world had handled these issues, he couldn't help but be concerned about it a little. There was no 'infinite money', so if he continued to exchange everything he got, then either the Guild would run out of valis one day, or the value of each individual valis would fall as soon as significantly more of them started to circulate. Unless the gods had other plans which he wasn't aware of, which was extremely likely.

While Isaac was slaughtering his way through another swarm of Rock Roaches, carefully picking up their loot along the way, from one moment to the next, the entire dungeon started to tremble. It felt similar to an earthquake, but a little less violent than the ones that he had experienced in the past.

Genuine rage appeared on Isaac's face. He hated to be interrupted while he was in the middle of something. Couldn't this have happened after he had arrived at a staircase leading to the 43rd floor!? But even more importantly, what truly pissed him off was that he knew exactly what was going on. Just because it had been inevitable, that didn't mean that it felt any less infuriating. Some people really didn't know that they should keep their hands to themselves.

Not wasting more than a split second on being incensed or picking up the rest of his loot, Isaac turned to Ais.

"Yellow alert."

As soon as these words had left his lips, he disappeared.

"Wait, what!? Did he just leave us here? And what did he mean by that?"

Tiona was terribly confused. Was he worried about the dungeon collapsing and had run away? But if that was the case, why would he leave them here?

"It means that emergency protocol E is in effect, so we'll be on standby."

Ais' matter-of-fact tone didn't help the Amazoness to understand anything either.

'Seriously, what is going on!?'

-----

Ten minutes earlier, on the 15th floor.

"We've got company!"

With a dark look on her face, Tabitha grabbed her whip and turned around, staring into the darkness slightly nervously. Suicia immediately followed in her footsteps.

It didn't take long for tens of black robed figures to fill up the entirety of the hallway, relentlessly marching closer to the two. A look of shock flashed across Suicia's face as she instantly recognized this style of clothing. Those people… they usually wore either black or white robes, coupled with veils of the same colours to hide their faces.

"Evilus!"

All members of the Hermes Familia had already been aware that Remnants had appeared recently, so it wasn't too surprising that they would encounter them again somewhere. But… why here and why now of all things?!

"Bomani, Bennu, you two stall the Hermes Familia wenches. The rest, follow me."

At Asim's emotionless command, two of the black robed men shot forward, clashing with the prepared Tabitha and Suicia and making them step back in shock. Those two were definitely Level 3's! But wasn't this just a group of Remnants? How could they raise such outstanding warriors!? As far as the two girls were aware, almost every single member of Evlius had been slain back then.

Without giving them any chance to stop their advance, the massive black robed group rushed past the stalled women and quickly made its way towards the students. Although their position was different from a few hours ago, that didn't matter. They had found them without a problem. When Asim had spied on them before, he had marked them using his Skill, making it impossible for them to escape his detection, unless he died or they entered a place that could block even his Skill. The only drawback of it was that it had a time limit. If he wanted to track someone's location for longer periods of time, then he would have to reapply the Skill as many times as needed.

The moment that the fighting had started nearby, the students noticed the commotion and grew restless. They were well aware that the Hermes Familia was protecting them, so hearing a battle break out so close to them didn't bode well, at all. As quickly as possible, Aselina finished off the rest of the monsters that had been holding them back, then the group ran into one of the hallways connected to the cavern that they had been in, as fast as they could.

Sadly, they soon realized that they had made the wrong choice - just minutes after they had started to escape, they entered an empty room… and noticed that it was a dead end.

"Get in position!"

With a deep frown on his face, Kalin gripped his spear. Quickly but orderly, the group gathered together, blocking the hallway in front of them. It was always easier to defend just one front than to let the potential enemy enter and attack them from all sides. Sure, monsters could spawn, but they hadn't yet. For now, this was the wisest course of action. After all, they couldn't kill monsters that hadn't been 'born' yet.

Moments later, the huge group of black robed figures approached. Seeing their targets all prepared for a final showdown, Asim smirked and unsheathed his khopesh, pointing it in their direction.

"Attack!"

At his command, it seemed like a dam broke - a black flood rushed towards the students. They couldn't help but gulp heavily, their knuckles white from how tightly they gripped their weapons.

The first to clash with the opponents was Kalin, as he stabbed his spear towards the throat of one of the attackers in the front. The others weren't slower than him, his reach was just further thanks to his weapon. It didn't help him much, or at all, though. A woman's voice snorted at his weak attempt and brushed his spear aside with pure strength, catapulting him backwards for a few meters. Only with difficulty did he manage to land on his feet.

'Oh shit, this is bad! We definitely can't handle this!'

After a moment of thought, he managed to assess the threat-level of their opponents. As none of them were too quick for him to follow with his eyes, only the stationary leader in the back could potentially fall into that category and be a huge problem. All in all, it wasn't the worst that they could have faced, by far. Because they should still have the time to react, they should go with 'that one'.

"Mina, yellow alert!"

By the time he had shouted, the rest of the group had already been forced backwards. Aselina had voluntarily retreated to help protect Mina, consistently managing to keep two of the opponents in check, but the Chienthrope girl hadn't fared any differently from Kalin. Averin was circling the two girls, quickly pecking at every opponent who got too close, giving them a headache. His speed was high enough to escape all of their attacks, but he wasn't really of much help, especially because the enemies' robes and veils seemed to be made from quite the decent material.

Once she heard her friend's assessment, Mina nodded and signalled to Aselina to protect her for a moment, then she reached her hand into her backpack, searching for something. Their enemies weren't fools, though, and they momentarily managed to stall the slightly dangerous racoon girl. This made it possible for one of them to slip around her to attack Mina, to make sure that she wouldn't be capable of using whatever item she was looking for.

Still rummaging in her backpack, Mina jumped backwards while sweating bullets, but she wasn't fast enough and could only helplessly stare at her opponent's dagger approaching in slow motion. She was about to raise the threat-level and choose to follow another part of the emergency protocol, but then she heard an angry crow almost the volume of a dragon's roar.

"FUCK OFF!"

With all the speed that he could muster, even using Atalantan Accelerate, Averin dove beak-first into the side of the attacker, opening a large hole leading straight to the man's innards. A guttural scream escaped the man's throat as he heavily crashed into one of the walls even though it was more than ten meters away.

The Jack Bird hadn't come out of this unscathed, however. His Endurance was his lowest stat, it was pitifully low, even. He couldn't handle the backlash of his own destructive attack. Blood dripped out of his beak and his scale-covered skin had burst in a few places. Slowly but surely, his feathers got drenched in blood, making the normally adorable, fluffy rooster seem oddly menacing. Although he kept up a strong front, in all honesty, he could barely keep standing.

"Hurry up!"

After looking at the dog girl with anger in his gaze, Averin turned back to the opponents, most of which had momentarily frozen in disbelief. Never would they have guessed that such an endearing creature would be capable of using such explosive power. Even Kalin and Mina were baffled and shocked, while Aselina had no time to waste - she was still fighting against multiple enemies, only barely managing to avoid getting any deep cuts. Her opponents' stats weren't too much higher than hers, but because she hadn't been training with Isaac for too long, she still found it hard to deal with multiple stronger enemies at once. Comparatively, Kalin and Mina were just completely outclassed, as there was an unbridgeable gap in stats.

-----

Somewhere else on the 15th floor, a cloaked figure suddenly came to a halt, her blue eyes filled with anger and worry.

'That crow… I'm sure that was one of my kin! I have to hurry!!'

A split second later, the figure had already rushed tens of meters away. She was closing in on the source of the sound as quickly as she could.